DESCRIPTION: The 4th International Metallothionen meeting will be held from September 17-20, 1997, at the Westin Crown Center in Kansas City, Missouri. The goal of the meeting is to provide a forum for both American and foreign investigators of different disciplines who are actively engaged in the cutting edge of metallothionen research. Metallothioneins are low molecular weight, cysteine-rich, metal-binding proteins which have been proposed to play an important role in metal toxicology and in scavenging of free radicals. Because this field has attracted scientists from widely diverse disciplines (i.e., cell and molecular biology, analytical chemistry, pathology, biochemistry, physiology, pharmacology, internal medicine and environmental toxicology) it is pertinent that such investigators are provided a forum to analyze, critically evaluate, and discuss the latest developments, unresolved problems, and current theories in metallothionen biology. Since the Third International Meeting in Japan, many interesting and new aspects of Metallothionen research have been stimulated and is rapidly expanding. The symposium will consist of platform lectures and posters to disseminate the latest advances, both in data and theory, in the field. Significant time for discussions will be included. The proceedings will be published in book form.